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I saw my first beggars a few years ago when the Romanians started coming to Finland. I never give them money. If they are so poor, how could they afford to travel all the way here? Also, the crime rate rose quite a lot once they started coming here. (Nowadays there are less of them than there used to be, since most Finns have stopped giving them money.)
I never give to big issue sellers. I'm not sure why, I used to but stopped (I might have read an unfavourable article about them somewhere).
In the past when a beggar asked for money I would look ignore them (partly through being a student and having no money to give), but now I work it just depends on if I have money or not.
A few months ago I was walking through Liverpool and someone was asking for money, as normal I ignored them but something about him nagged at me - I think it was because he looked so hungry (and I had just been paid a few days earlier). After I had walked about 3 or 4 hundred yards I turned back and gave him £5.
I don't know if he spent it on food, drink or drugs, but I know that for at least one day he had the option of not going without food and in all honesty I did not miss the money.
Since then if I have some money to give I will do, I would like to think that if I ended up homeless that someone would do the same for me.
I will say this: there are a lot ore beggars around here the past couple of years than there were before. It used to be you never saw them. Now, depending on how much/where you travel, you see them everyday. There used to be one I. Particular that would stand at an intersection I use. One thing I've learned is they're not dumb, because he knew this intersection was mostly used by people coming home from St. Louis, so he knew they had jobs. It wasn't unusual to see people handing him money. I always wonder how much he made. I've heard stories of professional beggars. One guy in particular made 30-40 thousand dollars a year begging outside sporting events. Not a bad haul.
I do see more and more "Romanians and Bulgarians" in Helsinki (most or all are gypsies-from my eyes), but opposing my earlier statement these types are professional beggars and thieves who pass it on from generation to generation. I have no time for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Annamariah
They are also present in London where some years ago, they managed to lift £1000 from one of my accounts. The bank immediately repaid the difference but as far as I'm concerned they should be hunted down and disposed of.Quote:
Originally Posted by tonywalt
Unless a beggar comes off aggressively I am always nice. I am usually too broke to help them but I do what I can when I can. People who hate beggars need to go read some enlightened literature and learn the sublime beauty and simple necessity of compassion.
There are no beggars on the ice. I saw one for the first time though when I was 12 and in Hamburg Germany. it was a guy around 18 with a really skinny rottweiler. I kinda felt sorry for the dog but my aunt who was with me dragged me along. I didn't get it then but now I think it's because he was on drugs.
But like I said no beggars on the ice but a lot of homeless drunks though but even they are on some sort of welfare so they don't bother much.
You see, I know why I will never have to beg. I have never begged, been starving, close to being malnourished, milked my parents and friends of every scrap of food or cup of coffee they could spare and never begged. But anyway. I will never have to beg for one simple reason - I look like a movie star and I come of as incredibly charming, which means all I have to do is find a rich heiress to get hitched to. Every young woman has a rebellion streak in her. A rich young heiress, encountering an impoverished model-like poet like me, will surely be unable to pass up the chance to live out the grand Tristan-und-Isolde-esque romance that awaits.
Darcy- you're a gem. You should move to Hollywood, it's the perfect place for you. If you can't find the heiress, you can find work playing a beggar in a movie.
I've never seen children begging in the metro area but it could be different in the outback towns and that would be heartbreaking for me and change my viewpoint.
Believe me, I have thought of going to Hollywood many, many times. But I think I prefer the writing life. I would not want to put up with the constant scrutiny that actors receive. That industry is so much about image. I am not about image. I am real, too real for Hollywood. I would rather live poor and keep my privacy and integrity than dance for the cameras and look down on my humble roots. I don't like cameras. I am very good in front of a camera, I have actually done a lot of acting practice, but just the camera itself, the intrusion it presents, turns me off of that industry.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buh4Bee
Furthermore, I am very family-centric. I want above all to HAVE A FAMILY and take care of the family members I presently have. That might seem easier with an actor's salary, but the constant harassment celebrities receive can drive a person quite literally mad.
I am already respected in my circle as a poet. I think the poet lifestyle is better and easier on the family.
The verse you’re thinking of is Hebrews 13:2 "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it."Quote:
Originally Posted by papayahed
This thread is really interesting to me because this is a sub-plot to my book.
When my hubby and I were on our honeymoon in Plymouth, a man approached us trying to sell beaded necklaces out of his backpack. We didn’t have enough cash at the time to buy one. So instead, he asked us for some spare change so he could get a cup of coffee. My first impulse was to buy him the coffee and a meal ourselves with our card (there was a shop not 20 feet away), but my hubby was already digging into his pocket for some coins. He gave him about a dollar and I thought, “Eh, we would have given him cash to buy a necklace anyway.” We were on our way back to our car and decided to stop in first at a convenience store for snacks. Apparently, we had given the man just enough to add to whatever else he had, because after we'd gathered our snacks and were going up to the counter to pay, there he was, buying beer!
So after that experience, no, I never give money unless it’s in the form of a gift card. I usually carry snack bars (especially now because my dining out options are incredibly limited), and I’ll offer them out. If I have the time, I’ll run through a drive-thru and get them an entire “super-sized” meal.
Once a panhandler, who had a sign saying “Hungry”, turned away in disgust when I offered him a pastry (untouched) that I’d picked up at a coffee shop. I really want to believe that his attitude was because he was a diabetic or celiac and couldn’t eat it, or even that it was because it was merely wrapped in cellophane and he feared malicious intent on my part. But that was the only time that happened. Most of the time, the panhandlers seem grateful for my food offerings.
Yeah but if I was a beggar and it was the 10th pastry of the day being offered, I'd get pretty nauseated too....which brings us to the ultimate question:
CAN BEGGARS BE CHOOSERS or are we just looking for some grateful reward for ourselves?
Well beggers too can strive for a balanced diet. Simply solved my standing outside different kinds of restaurants, bars, and bistros.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delta40
I normally opt to stand outside the Ritz Carlton beach bar - they make a killer dirty martini and excellent lumpfish caviar on Waters Biscuits.
Yea, one of the litter (Freudian slip) ones snatched my girlfriends bracklet off her arm, and when i chased him (which was the point of the distraction) the bigger one tried to take her purse. It was a helluva calamity. The other Roma stood around and watched. I think they enjoyed my rather loud dissertation on their culture.Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller